Peter’s Place

Skiing… perhaps the only thing I like about winter.  But boy, is it expensive!!  Seems like most of the mediocre ski areas here in Central New York have hiked their lift ticket rates for the season.  And I hate to pay those rates, when I know the major mountains in the high Adirondacks or Vermont are a much better value for the money.  It’s something I’ve always wondered about… and I finally tracked down the numbers to prove myself right. 

For example, a one-day lift ticket at Woods Valley in Westernville is $30 this year.  They have 3 lifts, so that’s $10 per lift.  But at Killington in Vermont, your $79 pass gets you onto 32 lifts, so you’re only paying $2.47 per lift!  Check out the rest of my research and see for yourself…

For the chart below, I went to each ski area’s website.  I gathered the following information:

• Price of a one-day lift ticket.  Let’s assume it’s a weekend.  Some ski areas differentiate between Saturday and Sunday; I used the Saturday prices.
• Number of lifts.  I went by the number posted on the “mountain info” page most places have on their website.  If they didn’t have one, I located a trail map and counted.  To keep things simple, I just used the published number or the number on the map — I didn’t nitpick about high-speed/low-speed, doubles, triples, quads, t-bars, tow ropes, etc.
• Number of trails.  Again, data as listed on the mountain stats page or trail map for each website.
• Vertical Drop.  Most ski areas had it listed on their stats page.  For those that did not, I googled

   <Ski area name> +"vertical drop"

  and looked for at least 3 independent websites that had the same figure.

Then… I simply divided the lift ticket price by each of the other three statistics to find out how much you’re paying per lift, per trail, and per foot of vertical drop.  That way, no matter how you want to compare one ski area to another, you’ve got it all there.  Here they are, listed in no particular order.

There you have it!  The mediocre ski areas in Central New York are grossly overpriced, compared to the major resorts to our east.  If the numbers overwhelm you, I’ll explain:

Price per Lift.  As I briefly explained before, Woods Valley wants $30 for a lift ticket.  They have 3 lifts.  Divide 30 by 3, and you’re paying $10 per lift.  At Killington, you’ll pay more than twice as much for the ticket, at $79.  But you get access to up to 10 times as many lifts, so the cost per lift is just $2.47.  You can’t even get a cup of hot chocolate at either place for that much!

Price per Trail.  Woods Valley loses again here.  With only 13 trails, your $30 lift ticket means you’re paying $2.31 per trail.  At four of the major resorts, the price per trail is less than one dollar.  In this category, you could argue that the other CNY areas are more reasonably priced, or you could argue that Stowe in Vermont is priced a bit high, considering they have only 48 trails.

Price per Vertical Drop Foot.  Some ski areas boost their trail counts with “fake” trails.  You know what I mean… the little 100-foot-long trails that connect two “real” trails, whose existence is solely to boost the trail total.  Others boost their lift counts by including tow ropes or “magic carpets” that most real skiers never use.  So, I also included the “vertical drop” as a measure of the mountain itself.  Regardless of how many lifts or trails you have, a bigger mountain always means more time skiing and less time sitting on the lifts.  And once again, you can see you’ll pay more at the mediocre CNY ski areas than you do at the major resorts. 

Snow Ridge claims to have the most snow in the area, thanks to its proximity to Lake Ontario.  That’s great, but with a vertical drop of just 500 feet, you’re paying more per foot there, than at any other ski area I profiled.  By contrast, Killington in Vermont offers a vertical drop that’s six times longer, for less than half the price.

And that’s not all!

Another rant about this, is that ALL of these ski areas will charge the same amount, regardless of how many trails are actually open, or how many lifts are actually working.  If it’s a crappy winter and only half the trails are open, you still pay full price.  Considering it’s an hour drive from my place to ANY of the local ski places, I’m not going to pay full price for only half the experience, only to get bored and leave so early, that even a 4-hour pass would have been too much.

I know a bad winter is tough on the ski areas, but I’m not exactly making money hand over fist either.  And face it, when only half the trails are open, the only customers are the people who gambled in advance by purchasing season passes.  They already paid – they might as well try to get their money’s worth.  But for day-pass customers, you need to create an incentive for me to use the gas and time to make that drive.  If only half the trails are open, I should only have to pay half price.

Ski areas, why not???  Your expenses are the same whether 50 people or 500 people show up. If you only have a few trails open, you know nobody will actually show up and pay full price.  Wouldn’t it be better to sell tickets at discount, than to sell none at all?